


The voices in my head

by PrincessAmericaChavez



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 07:07:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9061714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessAmericaChavez/pseuds/PrincessAmericaChavez
Summary: A complicated situation forces Lito to come clean to Hernando and Daniela about what is going on with him.





	1. Paparazzi

“You’re being followed,” announces grimly Will’s voice inside Lito’s head.

There is always a tension to him, straight back, attentive eyes, tight chest, but his voice is still usually welcomed inside Lito’s mind, his presence is protective and reassuring, always kind and ready to help. Will is, after all, a beautiful man with a beautiful soul. The kind of man he would have crush on, if he was still in the business of having crushes and not walking hand in hand with the one and only love of his life. Still, he’s allowed to enjoy his and Wolfgang’s presences in his mind from time to time, isn’t he? This is the first time he can think of when he regrets their appearing, carrying gray clouds to an otherwise perfect afternoon.

He spreads an arm out, across Hernando’s chest, dryly bringing him into a halt. His gaze is set on the black car clearly waiting for them in the next corner.

“What is it, Lito?” Hernando asks, the easy smile still lingering over his features.

“Paparazzi,” he deadpans. It sounds like a curse word when he sprouts it like that. He can’t help it. By now, maybe he should be used to their presence, constantly swarming around him like mosquitos thirsty for new blood and gossip. He should have seen it coming, too. It’s always the same, before a movie or after a brand new rumor about him. He should really be used to it by now, but he’s not. He hates them. They’ve taken too much from him, but he won’t let them have this, this moment of calm and happiness walking hand in hand with Hernando after a perfect date, feeling warm and loved, they can’t have it. “Come on, let’s cross the street,” he says, pulling Hernando with him.

“No, Lito, it’s just- let’s just go. The car is parked that way.”

“We’ll tell Dani to pick us up,” he insists. “Come on, we’ll just cross the Zocalo. It’ll be fast. It- It’ll be romantic!”

Hernando laughs, in that frustrating and loving way that only he seems to be able to balance so perfectly, and lets Lito drag him across the street. They sort through the cars, and he begs the city’s traffic will hold them off. Hernando lets himself be guided by him trustfully, as he texts Daniela asking to be picked up on the other side of the plaza. The Zocalo is nearly empty, a few couples walk together in the darkness, pressed tightly against one another, sharing heat and kisses without a care in the world. Lito envies all of them. Even now that their relationship is somewhat public, he could never dare something like that. Not yet, he corrects himself, wishfully.

They’re almost there when an identical black car pulls over in front of them.

“This cabrones,” he hears himself whisper angrily.

Five men jump out of the car. He feels Wolfgang’s hand on his shoulder, making him stop.

“Those are not paparazzi,” he mutters. Lito only realizes he said it out loud too when Hernando sends him a worried look. “Come on,” he says, pulling his boyfriend in another direction.

Again, he almost thinks they are going to make it, when yet another car shows up. Why? How many of them are there? Who are they? He doesn’t get to ask any of those questions when the men pull out and walk straight towards them. Without thinking, he steps in front of Hernando protectively, not as if he could do much himself against all of them.

“Hey, what-”

So much for talking. A fist crosses his face and sends him tumbling to the floor. He can taste blood. His heart is running too quickly, he’s scared, terrified, and it all gets worse when he hears Hernando struggling against them.

“Don’t touch him!” He screams, but his voice sounds too weak. “Help. Help me.”

He knows Wolfgang’s coming to his aid, of course it’s him. He’s suddenly standing there, looking at the buff blond fight them off with a brutality he both dreads and admires. He feels his own knuckles and knees hitting warm strong bodies without a hint of hesitation, he feels himself receive hits without flinching, even if he knows how bad they’ll hurt tomorrow. It is still not enough, there are too many of them, and even as Wolfgang fights he feels panic grow in his veins because Hernando gets a fist to the gut and falls to the floor and he _can’t get to him. Oh, god._

There’s a click in front of him, one he has heard several times in movie sets and suddenly makes his blood go cold: a gun, ready to fire. His and Wolfgang’s movements stop all at once. There’s nothing he can do, and he can tell in his other self’s mind neither does he. 

“Joaquin says hello,” the man holding the gun says with a bloodied smile, “and that he wants you to feel what it is like, to lose who you love.”

 _No. No, no, no,_ his mind races desperately as his eyes spot Hernando being dragged away. _Help me. Please help me. They are too many. Please._

 _“_ Be calm,” a new presence whispers in his mind. He’s suddenly trapped in a cell. He’s trapped. He’s always been trapped. No escape. 

“I can’t be calm. I’m not gonna be calm! They are taking him! They are- Please, Sun.”

“Be calm,” she insists, and they are back in the Zocalo. It all looks so slow, Hernando is struggling against them, but they are halfway through to the car and only a miracle would save him now. He takes in a deep breath, and his body again stops being his own. 

He sees Sun fight and feels her in his own body at the same time. Still, it doesn’t seem possible. While Wolfgang’s strength and brutality feels like something he could manage, if he was to ever train like that or learn, what _she_ does feels inhuman. She dodges just as the gun fires, twisted the man’s arm until it pops out of his shoulder. She jumps and kicks in the air, she strikes them time and time again, and he wonders how she manages to make his big slow body suddenly move so gracefully and lightly. He jumps and straddles a man’s shoulders with his thighs, brings him down hard, freeing Hernando from his hold. It all feels surreal, too good even for one of his crazy action movies. The craziest part, though, is the way he feels her mind connected to hers. He feels her calm, how exact each movement is, how her body moves without even thinking. 

When Lito is fully in his body again, he’s standing surrounded by unconscious men. Their car speeds away through the traffic. Hernando is on the floor, he lost his glasses at some point in the struggle, he’s panting and shaking. The look in his eyes is almost fear, and Lito wants to punch himself for ever letting any harm come to him. 

“My love,” he whispers, kneeling down next to him. Hernando flinches away slightly, and his heart freezes. That- That had never happened before. “Hernando?”

“What- What just-?”

“Lito!” Daniela suddenly shouts from the car, hitting the claxon to get their attention. “Oh my god, Lito! What happened?!”

“Come on,” he grunts, helping Hernando to his feet and pulling him to the car. “Come on, we have to go.”


	2. The call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do you prove you're not crazy when you're hearing voices in your head?

It is slightly past midnight when they get home. This days, that means Daniela’s place. Lito is weirdly okay with that. He does miss his place, the art Hernando had carefully picked, all the little corners they’d made love in, all the little stories they’d built, but there’s something about this new place that feels _theirs_ too. All three of them, a unit he’s gotten used to faster than he ever dreamed of. They don’t feel like a unit, tonight. As Daniela carefully tends to Hernando’s wounds, he feels like an outsider, like he’s millions of miles away, in seven other cities at the same time. 

“Are you okay?” He finally asks, bending in front of Hernando, trying to catch his eyes. His lover nods, avoiding his gaze. His heart twists. “Hernando, please, talk to me,” he begs. 

“I’m not the one that has to do the talking,” Hernando finally says, looking up. 

Lito backs away, feeling every nerve in his body tense. 

“Yes, Lito, what the fuck?” Daniela asks, her eyes locked on her phone as she browses through something. She holds the phone up for Hernando to see, both of them shocked. Lito picks over their shoulders, sees himself just as he’s throwing a man over his shoulder through the air. He sees himself. He sees Sun, too. #KungFuLito is trending in Twitter. 

 Lito clears his throat, nervous, starts pacing around the room. His other selves are here too, all of them watching, ready to offer support if necessary. He’s thankful, but he’s not sure if that is actually helping or making it all worse right now. 

“Lito,” Hernando insists. 

“I have to tell them,” Lito tells the other sensates, and he’s surprised by the desperation in his own voice. “Please. I have to.”

He expects a negative answer, for any of them to voice out loud all the excuses he’s been making up in his head. Instead, they nod in understanding. 

“It’s okay,” Nomi smiles. “It helps. Since Amanita knows, it all feels more real.”

“I don’t know if I want it to feel more real,” he admits. 

“Lito, what are you talking about?” Dani frowns, worried. 

He faces them, both sitting on the couch, close together. It’s strange how they’ve become a unit in his mind, how he loves them both so deeply, each in their own way. And he knows they love him too, just like they love each other. Some times he’s jealous of it, like right now. He hates feeling like the _other_ in the room. 

“Okay. Okay. I’m doing it. I’m telling you,” he says, facing them with his best game face, “but you are going to think I’m crazy. God, _I_ think I’m crazy.”

“You’re not,” Kala reassures him. 

“So, there are this... people in my head,” he struggles to explain. “I hear them some times, seven people. And I see their lives, all around the world. And some times they talk or move for me, or some times we only visit. I’m still not sure how it goes, but they are all like, other mes, and they do crazy stuff like tonight, and-”

“Lito. Lito, wait,” Hernando says, leaning forward, and his expression is full of concerned, but Lito is almost thankful to see that instead of fear in his face. “You’re saying you’re hearing voices?”

“Yes! Wait, no. That’s not- they are real. They are here right now.”

“Oh, god. Lito, everything that has happened it’s been so much, the past months. Maybe you should be talking to a therapist,” Daniela sighs, running a hand through her messy hair. 

“I’m not crazy! _I’m not crazy!”_  He snaps, and he realizes yelling like this is not making him seem any more logical, but this is just so frustrating. There are no right words to explain the situation to them. He feels like he’s coming out all over again. God, he wishes he had a script right now. “This people, they are real. They are all over the world. They are-”

 _God._ He sends the sensates a look: please help me. 

“There are eight of us,” Will says, speaking for him. “We are all over the world. Iceland, America, Korea, Kenia, India, Germany,” Riley adds. “And we can talk and share what we know. We help each other,” Capheus smiles. “We are family,” is Sun’s addition. “We are sensates,” Will nods, and there’s a strange reassurance in that word, in having a label for it. 

He thinks it is fairly clear, but Hernando and Daniela are still just sitting there together, looking at him with fear and concern, as if he’d grown a second head. Seven new heads. He feels tears of frustration well in his eyes. 

“How do I prove I’m not crazy?” He asks desperately, running his fingers through his hair.

There’s suddenly an idea shared in the cluster, something Will and Riley did. He smiles widely, and the frowns in Hernando and Daniela’s face only turn deeper. 

“I can prove it!” He jumps, and represses a groan at the pain that brings to his muscles. _God,_ that’s gonna hurt tomorrow. Right now, though, he doesn’t care. “I can prove it, I can prove it,” he exclaims, rushing to Hernando, kneeling before him and grabbing his hands. 

Hernando sits quietly, waiting. He almost looks sad. 

“Nomi,” Lito looks at her, standing up and walking to where he knows the others only see an empty space in the room. He grabs his phone, pulls out his contacts and shows it to her. “This is Hernando’s number. You couldn’t possibly have it, right? Okay, so you can call him now, please?”

Nomi hesitates, only for a second, then she nods. Lito finds himself in her flat, with Amanita hovering closely as usual. 

“I’m gonna call Hernando,” she announces to her girlfriend as she grabs a burner phone. Amanita takes it on the stride. God, Lito wants to have that kind of trust too right now. 

In Dani’s apartment, they wait in silence. 

“Lito, it’s been a long night, maybe you should-”

“No, no,” he holds a finger up. “Just wait.”

Daniela sighs, standing up and walking to him. “Lito, it’s okay, you don’t have to-”

“Just wait please! She’s-”

The phone rings. 

Hernando and Daniela share a shocked look, and Lito is so giddy an excited whimper escapes his throat. 

“¿Bueno?” Hernando answers, looking straight at Lito. 

“Hernando?” He can hear Nomi’s voice on the other side of the line. 

“Sí, ¿quién habla?”

“Uh, Hernando, this is Nomi. I’m Lito’s... well, I’m part of the cluster.”

It’s so strange, Lito realizes, hearing Nomi speak english. He keeps forgetting they all speak different languages. In his head, it all sounds like Spanish. Not having an immediate translation right now, feels off. 

“Oh, are you...” Hernando struggles to find the words as he switches languages, his eyes on Daniela who is mouthing some sort of question. 

Lito is not a patient person. He wants to know what is going on, so he visits Nomi to get her end of the conversation. 

“Hey, it’s okay, do you understand me?”

“Yes,” Hernando mumbles. 

“Okay, so listen, I know this is all weird, and I know it’s a lot to process. It is for us too, but everything Lito said is true. I know he loves you and Daniela a lot, and he’s going to need you right now more than ever.”

“Yes, yes, but this is...”

“Crazy, I know,” Nomi smiles, and she’s there with Lito, watching Hernando and Daniela make faces at each other as the phone, on speaker, rests in the coffee table. “Daniela, your place is nice,” Nomi remarks. “I really love the dress, by the way.”

Daniela covers herself, and looks around as if looking for a hidden camera. Lito chokes back a laugh. 

“Look, it’s okay, we’ll give you some privacy to talk,” Nomi says. “If you have any questions, Lito knows where to find us. Just, please, believe him. He’s really not crazy. Aside from the drama queen part.”

“That’s not fair,” Lito complains, though he’s smiling as he sits down in a chair. Hernando and Daniela keep their eyes on him. 

“I’m gonna go now. Good luck, Lito.”

“Thank you, Nomi. Say hello to Neets.”

The call ends. Silence follows. Lito holds his breath. He did the right thing, didn’t he? It has to have worked. They have to believe him. They have to. He needs them on his side, he needs to share this craziness with them. 

Hernando makes that face, where he scrunches his nose and pushes his glasses back —except he has no glasses, since he lost them in the fight, and he ends up poking the bridge of his nose instead. God, he loves him so much. 

“Okay,” Hernando sighs. “Okay, I’m listening.”


	3. Tai Chi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hernando and Daniela are slowly getting to know the cluster

The silence is strange. Lito has spent the past several hours talking. He tries to be through, to tell them about everything he’s been through in the past year, but there is just too much to tell, his words keep wandering off to the little things, the moments he remembers best. He talks and talks and it doesn’t feel like enough, he tries desperately to tell them how beautiful and terrifying it all is, how much he fears he’s losing his mind. 

He didn’t realize that he’d started crying until Hernando started drying his tears with his lips, whispering words of reassurance. Daniela rubbed circles on his, tracing lines too up his knee. After that, it all melted into a fit of passion and love and lips and hands and simple words. 

Now, in the silent room where all three of them collapsed, a tangled mess of limbs and clothes, the silence feels like a balm. The only noise are the far away cars that pass by the street at this ungodly hour of the morning. Lito is faintly aware of Hernando’s hand petting his hair distractedly. 

“Where are you, baby?” Hernando asks quietly, attentive eyes set on him. 

Lito blinks himself out of his head, and sends him a tired smile. 

“I’m right here, my love,” he replies. 

It’s not the answer Hernando seems to be looking for. He frowns. 

“You were not here. You were... far away. You can tell me.”

“I was-” Lito clears his throat. “I was in India.”

“India?” Dani’s curious voice rumbles against his back, he thought she was sleeping already. 

“With... Kara?”

“ _Kala_ ,” Lito corrects. “She’s having diner right now, with her husband.”

“Oh, what was his name?” Daniela sits up, pulling out her phone. 

“Rajan Rasal.”

“Oh, is this him,” she asks, showing them a picture. Lito nods. 

“He’s cute,” Hernando points out the obvious. Suddenly, Lito chuckles a loud laugh. “What?”

“She says she thinks my man is cute too,” Lito says, smiling at Kala who’s smiling at them from a corner of the room. He can feel her slight discomfort at the partial nudity all three of them are displaying. 

“She’s here?” Hernando asks, sitting up too. He puts on his glasses, as if that’d help him see her. Lito laughs and nods again. 

“Yes, but she’s a little busy. We should just let her be,” he says as Kala disappears. Again, he can taste the indian food in his lips. He hums. “I believe Kala’s father is the best cook I’ve ever met. I can taste his food right now. It is unbelievable.”

“Is that why you were there?” Daniela teases. “Cheating on Hernando’s cooking?”

On cue, his boyfriend pouts playfully. 

“No. Sometimes, we go to each other when we are needed,” Lito explains slowly, even if he himself doesn’t quite understand it yet. “Today she needed some company.”

“To be with her husband?” Hernando blinks. 

“It’s... complicated,” Lito whispers. He’s not going to talk about the cluster’s personal lives like that. It feels like he’s intruding, but Hernando and Daniela are extremely interested and he caves in, just a little. 

“So they help you too?” Daniela asks.

“Yes. Wolfgang, he’s the german one, helped me save you... And I helped him kill some gangsters.”

“What?!” They both jump and Lito gives them their best apologetic smile, even if he doesn’t feel the least badly about it. 

“Wolfgang is a good man,” Lito feels the need to clarify. “He fought Joaquin, and he helped us break into the apartment the other day.”

“Oh,” Hernando murmurs, as the puzzle pieces clearly fit into his brain. 

“Tell me about the others,” Daniela asks, as if she was a little girl asking for a bedtime story. “What are they doing?”

“Well... Capheus is sleeping, he was driving the Van Damme all day,” Lito says, as he feels the Nairobi hit in his skin and the far away sounds of a night very different to theirs. “Nomi is...” he peeks but quickly pulls back. “Oh, well... she and Amanita... they are... we shouldn’t intrude...” he grumbles, blushing. 

“Oh my god!” Daniela laughs. “That’s _so hot!”_

Lito feels as Hernando stifles a laugh against his shoulder. Some times, it worries him how much his lover shares Dani’s sense of humor. 

“And Riley, she’s awake, she’s looking after Will.”

“Will, is that the cop?” Hernando asks, leaning closer. 

“The one that has to stay high?” Daniela adds. 

“He’s hiding,” Lito nods, heaviness creeping into his voice, “to keep us safe, he’s had to make a terrible sacrifice.”

“Safe from what?” Hernando frowns. 

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Lito declares abruptly, standing up from the bed. He can feel their eyes burning holes in his back. 

“Lito, to keep you safe from what?” Hernando insists. 

Lito wants to run away. He does, except he jumps from one trapped situation to another. He finds himself in Sun’s cell. She’s in solitary again, he’s not surprised. She’s awake, running through Tai Chi posses quietly. Her eyes question him and he shakes his head. 

“You don’t want to tell them,” Sun murmurs. “You’re afraid to make it real, but it is already real. There is no worse danger than that we can’t see coming.”

“I can’t protect them.”

“We all will,” Sun promises. 

“Hey!” Hernando’s voice pulls him back into reality, at least his reality. Mexico. Daniela’s pink room. Hernando’s stern eyes on him, Dani hovering close behind. “Don’t run away from me. Where were you.”

“Korea. Sun,” Lito murmurs. “She’s here.”

The small woman stands by his side, her presence soothing. Hernando looks around for her, but his eyes pass her by without noticing. 

“Why is she here?”

“Because I needed her,” Lito says without hesitation. “She’s... strong. She saved you last night.”

Hernando’s mouth forms a very round “o”. He looks at the spot where Lito’s referring to Sun, and does a small head nod. 

“Thank you,” he says in Korean. Lito understands it through her. Sun gives a small smile and answers through his lips. The look Hernando shoots him back is full of wonder for a second, before worry clouds it again. “Do you need her right now... to fight?”

“No. She’s also strong, like, calm. She’s doing Tai Chi.”

“You interrupted.”

“Yes,” Lito corrects himself. “I’m sorry. I came to her cell and interrupted her Tai Chi.”

“Her cell?” Daniela tilts her head, her interest sparked. 

“She’s in prison,” Lito says looking down. “It’s- It’s not her fault. She used to be free. A business woman, a fighter, but now they took it all. It’s not fair. She lost so much.”

“You go to the prison when you feel trapped,” Hernando finally puts it into words, looking at him like it’s the first time he sees him. He brings a hand up to cares his cheek and Lito leans into that touch like a drowning man gasping for air. 

“I have an idea,” Daniela smiles, in that shy way he so rarely gets to see. “Come. You and Sun.”

Sun gives him a quizzical look, but complies. Daniela guides them up to the roof, where the sun is slowly coming out over the sleepy city. Mexico City’s landscape is wide and crowded with houses and buildings, street lights painting it palely. It’s a beautiful landscape. He sees Sun’s eyes well with quiet tears. 

“When my... cousin was in prison,” Dani says, “he said he missed this the most. I think... Well, I think Tai Chi would be better here. Is that good?”

Lito and Sun nod at the same time. He feels their bodies moving together to get in position as he lets her take control, and he follows each movement perfectly. He never thought his own body could calm his mind like this, but the feeling is unlike any peace he’s known for a very long time. 

Sun pauses mid-move and glances back at Hernando and Daniela, who’re quietly staring at Lito perform moves he shouldn’t know by all accounts. 

“Would you like to join?” Sun asks. 

They both nod insistently and imitate her position. Slowly, they flow as dawn breaks over the city’s sky. In between them two, feeling the distant presence of the cluster in his head, he feels more than ever like he’s found a place he can belong to. Still, there’s deep in his stomach the never ending fear that someone will rip it away from him eventually. He won’t let that happen.


	4. A family matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dealing with Lito could already be a handful sometimes, but adding seven other personalities and issues can take a little getting used to for Hernando.

Hernando is an observant person. He's always been good at finding the patterns, the little details, the hidden meanings. It's made him better at his job, giving him a deeper understanding of art. And there is no art work he knows as well as he knows Lito Rodriguez. With the new information he has about him, he begins to figure out more things too.

He learns that Lito goes to Nomi when he is scared. He can see him space out whenever their relationship is gleefully discussed on tv, or when a new racy headline comes out. He would be offended, but whatever comfort he finds in her really seems to help more than he could. He knows from his own coming out experience that having a confidant can make a big difference.

The rest of the cluster are called upon in varying occasions. Sun brings him calm, but sometimes he will rant in her behalf. When he gets a cold, Hernando can hear him singing Icelandic in his sleep, a lullaby from Riley, he's sure.

Kala, he discovers, has a storm inside. One day, after he forgets to put the milk away, Lito goes on a ranting spree. At first, he dismisses it as another drama episode, but there's an anger underneath the surface that makes his chest twist. It is until he starts slipping into a foreign language, Hindi words scattered here and there, that it all clicks into place. 'Personal problems' Lito had said.

"Kala! Kala!" He finally interrupts, and there's a moment of recognition in Lito's face that lets him known he's right. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay, I'm sorry," he whispers, pulling him into a hug –her into a hug. Lito clings to him, and for a second Hernando can visualize the small woman who is receiving the affection with tears in her eyes.

"Thank you," Lito whispers. When he pulls back he's all him again, a little shaken and ashamed. "Hernando, I-"

"It's okay, love. I know," Hernando smiles softly at him, cleaning a tear from his cheek. Part of those tears, he fears, are really Lito's.

Hernando is really alright with all of it. He really is. Except when he is not, when he feels a surge of jealousy of all of them, for sharing his lover's mind and feelings in a way more intimate than he will ever be able to. And then there's the way he talks about Wolfgang and Will, the look that crosses his face that makes his skin burn a little. He has never been a jealous lover. He always said love should be free. It doesn't make it any easier.

He discovers a darker side of those men the day Wolfgang shows up. He walks into Lito throwing a fit of anger. A flower vase flies across the air and smashes the wall next to Hernando just as he steps in.

"Lito!"

"Enough!" Lito yells, as if taking to himself. "Calm down, Wolfgang. This is not helping."

Whatever answer he receives is muted inside his mind, it doesn't seem to make him happy, though.

"No, no. We could still find another way... trick them or... or something..."

There is no answer. Wolfgang seems to leave and Lito, this time himself, kicks a chair with frustration.

"What the hell was that? What's going on, Lito?" Hernando asks, closing in as Lito sits down, head buried between his hands with frustration.

"He's an idiot! He's going to do something stupid and I can't help him."

"Who is?" Daniela walks in, looking around at the disastrous room. If she minds the damage done to her apartment, she doesn't show it.

"Wolfgang."

"Hot German guy?" She asks, hurrying to their side and sitting next to Lito, who just nods mournfully.

"Stupid stubborn German guy," he mutters. "He's going to take the deal. He's going to take it, and I told him those men were liars but he didn't care. And he's- it's gonna be bad, but he thinks it's the only way."

"What deal?" Hernando murmurs, grabbing Lito's hand. "What happens if he takes it?"

"He becomes head of the... of the family business," Lito grumbles darkly. German mafia. "It's not what he wants. He thinks he has to do it to protect everyone but he is- he's going to regret it. They will kill him. Or he will kill them and..."

"Let me talk to him!" Daniela suddenly begs. "Please Lito. Let me."

"Dani, I don't think this is the moment..."

"I know what I'm saying. Please. Trust me."

Lito sighs, closes his eyes and when he opens them again he is looking at someone on the other couch.

"Daniela wants to talk to you," he answers an unheard question.

The girl stands up and faces the empty chair with an ease that can only be the product of being an actress, used to pretend for things and people who are not really there.

"What you are about to do is stupid," she declares dryly, and Hernando has no doubt in his kind that she would be speaking like this to the dangerous German even if he was standing right there in person.

"He says it's the only way to keep his family safe," Lito whispers. "The real family. His friends."

"You think you're saving them?" Daniela asks with fire in her voice. "You are not! You're damming them!"

Vaguely, Hernando remembers every single thing Daniela has mentioned about her family. How she's not particularly fond of them. That his father does import/export. That he works closely with te same man that beat her. He already had a pretty clear idea of what it all meant, but seeing it like this is different.

"They will learn that this is what life feels like," Dani continues. "They will live always looking over their shoulder, always expecting danger. If you hated growing in that world, think about what you're doing to them. You're trapping them too with your choice, and they will not forgive you. Did you forgive your parents?"

There's a long silence. Hernando waits for Lito to translate, but he doesn't. He just sighs heavily and smiles.

"Dani you're amazing!" Lito jumps suddenly cheerful, running to her and lifting her in a hug.

"Yeah, well," she chuckles, discretely cleaning a tear away, "I know a thing or two."

"Now what?" Hernando asks, stepping closer. "Did he take the deal?"

"Yes," Lito smiles, and Hernando and Daniela step back confused by the mischievous glint in his eyes, "but not for long. Luckily, he has a damn good liar on his side."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come bother me in my tumblr: [princessamericachavez](http://www.princessamericachavez.tumblr.com)
> 
> To be honest, I don't even have a plan for this past like the 4th chapter but the idea has potential so I'll see what happens. Feel free to send me ideas!


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